One Last System

'Am I even capable of helping those guys out?' I thought while gently lifting Mia out of my lap and standing up myself. 'Or rather, can I bring Mia back to the outerpost without letting those guys leave my sphere of influence?'

In order to help Mia's friends, I had to get us safely to the outerpost first. And even though I managed to hide the source of my advantage over the Sangakarts so far, I wasn't naive enough to believe they wouldn't figure it out given the time necessary to move to the outerpost.

"Are we going already?" Mia asked, her face expressing just how surprised she was by my decisiveness.

"Yeah, there is no use wasting time here," I replied. Then, I bit down on my lips.

It was time to start my gamble.

"We don't really have the time to waste," I stated. "There is no telling when another meteor will strike the outerpost again," I added before turning my eyes towards the girl I saved.

"Right, I forgot to ask," I muttered, "what is your name?"

"Mine?" the girl asked when no one replied to my question for a moment. "It's Hera," she replied, nodding her head. "Nice to meet you..." she added, cutting her sentence as she looked at my face with a questioning look.

"I'm Arthur, this is Mia, and this guy is Ackhart," I introduced the people that I considered my group right now.

"And the others?" Hera asked, looking at the Sangakarts clumped in the back of the clearing.

"They don't matter," I replied in a dismissive manner.

"How can we not matter?" the same elder who previously hurled insults towards me now regained his confidence and again probed how much I would allow him to act up.

"It's simple," I replied, setting my new plan in stone. "If I want to save anyone in the Outerpost, I need to get there as soon as possible," I said before putting a small smile on my lips. "And since you guys would obviously take anyone I would leave with you hostage, I have no other choice but to leave you guys alone," I stated before shrugging my shoulders.

"And do you think we will allow..." the elder clearly didn't know better.

'Is this a result of being at the top for so long?' I thought as the look on my face darkened.

Yet, before I could even get my mind to invoke my disturb spell, another elder struck forward, imprinting his fist on the face of his rowdy colleague.

"Please, do not pay any mind to the words of this idiot," the smarter elder said, lowering his head in apology. "This guy doesn't know any better," he added before throwing a hateful stare at the guy he had just beaten.

"The fuck are you..."

"Shut up!"

Another first followed this quick exchange, forcing the emotional of the elders to finally purse his lips and stop talking.

"Once again, I wish to apologize," the smarter of the elders said before lowering his head. "Both for his actions right now and for whatever our group did to you and your girl before," he added, raising his head only to lower it before Mia a second later.

"That's an... unexpected change," I commented while squinting my eyes.

I had no doubt that this change of approach wasn't honest at all. The smarter of the elders was simply trying his utmost to stop me from doing the most obvious thing.

Since I wasn't going to let them travel with us, the easiest way to make sure they wouldn't cause any further trouble to my group... was to just kill them.

And to be honest, I couldn't really tell what was stopping me from doing so.

Maybe it was the morals of the earth? Or maybe a general dislike to taking life unless absolutely necessary?

'I guess I can sympathize with their situation too,' I thought, rolling my eyes over my own naivete.

As someone who was bullied throughout his entire life just because of my birth, I could understand people's innate with for freedom.

And who I was to judge what freedom meant to the people of this world?

"You guys were after my skin because I could uproot your plans," I stated the obvious. "But now that the situation changed, there is no reason for us to remain hostile towards each other," I claimed before turning my eyes towards Hera.

"Right away," she replied without me even saying a word. She then stood up from her spot and approached me only to beckon at Ackhart to do the same.

'To think that this girl would adapt to the situation quicker than a damned elder,' I thought, rolling my eyes over the fact that it took quite a while for Ackhart to realize what was going on.

"I won't forget this gesture of peace," the same elder who stopped me from killing his arrogant companion now nodded his head again. "I wish you the best of luck in your mission," he added, lowering his entire upper body to the point it turned parallel to the ground.

"Don't even make me regret leaving you guys alive," I warned the guy, only to shake my head. Yet, before I could say a single word more, Hera approached Mia and lowered her head.

"I'm sorry for what I'm about to do," she said in an apologetic voice.

"Huh?" Mia shrugged, grabbing my arm as she looked up at my face, clearly looking for an explanation of Hera's behavior.

Yet, before I could explain a thing, Hera approached my other side only to pull Ackhart along before throwing him to my left.

Once the elder ended up crashing into my side, she then latched on to Ackhart's other side before nodding her head towards me.

"Hold on tight, guys," I instructed, wrapping my hands around Mia's and Ackhart's waists. Yet, before leaving, I turned my head back to the Sangakarts.

"If my understanding over how this world is going to change, you might end up ushering in the prosperity that I will bring to it," I stated. "I'm not one to hold a grudge as long as the other party does the same," I announced, only to turn my eyes back towards the skies.

"Keep that in mind whenever anyone suggests your group to go against me," I added before ensuring my hold over my group, bending my knees and then jumping high up to the skies.